Many vehicles have onboard computer systems offering functional, informational, and/or entertainment capabilities. Such onboard computer systems may include a speech recognition feature, configured to recognize voice commands from a user so that task commands may be executed without requiring a user to direct his attention toward the computer system. A user can verbally articulate a command, and the vehicle onboard computer system completes a task corresponding to the received command. Such commands may include functionality relating to hands-free calling (Bluetooth), GPS navigation, radio tuning/volume adjustment, internet applications, and various media/entertainment capabilities.
Conventional methods use one or more microphones positioned near the driver seat of a vehicle, under the assumption that all commands will come from the driver and, consequently, all voice commands will come from the driver. However, as the capabilities of the vehicle onboard computer system expand, commands may include tasks that other passengers, besides the driver, wish to initiate. For example, a passenger sitting in the backseat of a vehicle may wish to utilize the media/entertainment or internet capabilities of the system, such as playing a DVD or accessing a software application. In this case, the passenger would not have the ability to initiate such tasks using voice recognition, because there are no microphones for receiving passenger voice data. In addition, the microphone(s) positioned near the driver generally execute audio filtering algorithms for the purpose of recognizing voice data coming from the driver and filtering (e.g., discarding) all other audio data.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide vehicle passengers the ability to submit voice commands to a vehicle onboard computer system for execution. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.